Dad has booked a trip to Nebraska for us this weekend!

If you are a rebellious teen and your parents are hurrying you to get to Nebraska this weekend run away.

Nebraska fears rush to drop off kids before haven law change

Oopsie!

Really? Not being able to support a child is the same as not loving that child? That makes perfect sense.

I doubt that all of these parents are candidates for Parents of the Year, but isn't that a reason for this law to exist? If the lawmakers have a problem with the situation, they need to do something about poverty and education, not mess around with a law that could be saving children.

You missed the point. The law was intended for newborns (under 72 hours old), not teens. The legislature screwed up by not putting an age limit. Now they are trying to fix the unintended result.

There has to be another way. I know it sounds horrible but my guess is that any kid would rather be in foster care in their own city with at least come access to their friends and the world they know, rather than be driven to Nebraska to be dumped off.

I know it is terribly complicated and the horrible economic times, poor social service system etc contributes, but really now - this law was intended to prevent infanticide.

(and ok, most hilarious CE title in a long time, though the topic... )

I get it. But the point still stands that a parent is willing to drive across country to give up rights to a teen is just as likely to do it somewhere the teen won't get even the crap amount of care provided by the foster system.

Is it awful? Of course. I'm just saying that the current situation is marginally less awful than the alternative. If the Nebraska wants to change the law, that's their prerogative. I'm just saying I'm frustrated the situation exists at all.

And the debate is between putting the limit at 72 hours to 30 day olds? What's the infant mortality relating to neglect and 2 years olds in the US?

That was the problem that the legislature had. They couldn't come up with a clear line, so they left it to interpretation. I vote for 72 hours.

Well, it has made a great deterrent. I keep telling my kids if they don't behave, our next vacation will be to Omaha.

Well, yeah. It was intended for kids who were in imminent danger of being harmed (like a newborn in imminent danger of being killed or stuck in a dumpster by a desperate new parent, primarily, but there could be other situations in which that applied--I think that was the idea in leaving out an age limit).

What's been happening in Nebraska isn't that. It's parents who either weren't aware of or didn't look for resources available to help them with their children. Should there be more information made readily available on that--family resources and whatnot? Hell yes. But Nebraska can't be responsible for taking in the nation's fucked up teenagers, so one can hardly blame them for realizing that they should have included an age limit to prevent misuse of the law and changing the law accordingly.

well, several things. first, a parent who's willing to drive across the country to get rid of their kid is, quite obviously, not willing to do so in a manner that provides said kid with less care than the foster system provides. if they were, they'd do so instead of driving across the country.

and speaking of foster care, wow does it frequently and mightily suck. not all the time, maybe not even most of the time, but often enough and badly enough that i really don't think expanding the institution can possibly be a good idea.

what frustrates me is the growing sense, among parents, that it's okay to abdicate your responsibilities as parents. the extends from the macro, like the flood of people choosing to get rid of their nearly-grown children, to the micro--like the larger and larger burden people are placing on the school system to teach kids how to be human beings.

I've been keeping an eye on these cases as they continue to show up. In most cases, the children are returned to their home state's child protective services.

Having worked for the foster care system in Nebraska in the past I would rather see infants (hell even toddlers and young children) dropped off than raised by some of the worthless fucks of parents I came across in the system. But yeah, teenagers are a bit much.

I know all of that. I just know I'm going to read about a kid 31 days old abandoned in the street and wonder what if they put the limit at 1 year.

Where do I abandon my 45 year old psychiatrist? Will Wyoming take him?

i simply don't think it's the job of the government, at any level, to cater to people who behave in that manner. it's like getting rid of property ownership laws in order to help thieves stop stealing.

That's all well and good, but if these parents acted responsibly are they likely to end up with children they aren't suited to care for?
And I think we can all agree that there is a fundamental difference between child abandonment and property theft.

it is not the place of the government to make it easy for people to be irresponsible. the faint possibility of providing greater care for a few children in the short term is not worth enabling our society to shitcan itself in the long term.

A 17-year-old.

I'm sorry, but that is fucking hilarious. They couldn't stand her for one more year.

I agree. This is not hilarious at all. And if you read some of the specific stories coming out of this weird loophole law, they are more heartbreaking than they are enraging. These people are more desperate than they are neglectful.

funny's what you make of it. just because someone finds something funny doesn't mean they don't take it seriously.

cases in which a nearly-adult person would be better off in the care of the state rather than the care of their parents are, at this point, relatively rare. in order to maintain and even improve that state of affairs, there needs to be pressure within our society to be a good parent. the ease with which the current Nebraska law can be taken advantage of puts a huge hole in that pressure. in order for me to agree with any practice intended to assist those edge cases, the practice in question would have to, at the very least, uphold what pressure exists.

Bumpdate:

The legislature is discussing the issue today. On the table is a proposed age limit of 30 days, which sounds to me like a washing machine return policy, or up to 1 year.